Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
south-west of this little lake, we found the ruins of an ancient city bordering dried
up river beds both on the east and south sides. Inside the ruined city walls, the sur-
face was scattered with Chinese tamarisks and sand-sage. Judging from the ruins,
we conjectured that it was a city of considerable size and tentatively inferred that it
was the site of the city of Ju-yan.
The city of Ju-yan, associated with an irrigated agriculture that flourished in the
Han Dynasty, is now yielding a harvest of an entirely different kind. During the last
few decades, excavation has brought to light great quantities of historical relics,
which are called by archaeologists “the Ju-yan slips of the Han Dynasty”. The Han
slips discovered here were not made of bamboo as in south China but of wood, on
which were recorded documents and archives referring to the Ju-yan area during the
Han Dynasty. They were strung together with cords and meant for preservation.
More than 30,000 Han slips excavated in this area have been given the name
“Ju-yan”. Still more are being dug out to add to the growing collection of historical
data, rich and detailed in content. It is no exaggeration to call it a bountiful
harvest.
Ruins of another ancient city lie some 15 km south by west of the ruins which we
have inferred to be the site of the city of Ju-yan. This is the famous Black City, much
frequented and more than once excavated by native and foreign investigators. Way
back in 1934 when I was a young college student, I read an article in the February
issue of the same year's British magazine
The Listener
, written by the distinguished
Swedish geographer and explorer Sven Hedin, entitled “The 'Black City' of the
Gobi Desert”. It immediately attracted my youthful interest, but it was not until 50
years later that I was lucky enough to have a chance to visit the scene and see for
myself the ruins of the ancient city. Although quite close to Ju-yan, the Black City,
completed in 1035 A.D., was constructed much later than the former. Some 950
years ago, it was a local administrative centre, with the attribute “Black Mountain”
preceding the name of the administrative division. Later it was shortened to Black
City; in the Mongolian language it is called Chara Choto, which bears the same
meaning.
This area and the environs of the Hexi Corridor were under the rule of a local
regime established by a national minority, known in Chinese history as the West Xia
(1038-1227). The West Xia Dynasty was exterminated by the Mongols in 1227, the
year when their illustrious chieftain Genghis Khan breathed his last. It was not until
Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan's grandson, had unified China and established the
Yuan Dynasty that the Black City resumed its position as administrative centre of
the region, with a new name Yijinai. The Venetian traveller Marco Polo passed
through here in 1272, and by a roundabout route through the Mongolian Plateau, he
reached first the city of Shangdu, built by Kublai Khan and later the city of Dadu,
predecessor of the present Beijing. Yijinai is now written in Chinese characters as
Ejin, whereas in Marco Polo's Travels it is Etsina. Marco Polo stated that he had to
acquire stocks of food for forty days there before continuing his journey, which
shows that the neighbourhood of the Black City was still an agricultural area at that
time.
